New tracking system for Malaysian Airlines

A frenzied multinational hunt for a plane began almost three years ago when Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappeared over the South China Sea. There were many rumors about the fate of flight MH 370. Like the seizure of the aircraft by a foreign government or sophisticated hijacking, but most presumed that the flight broke down in the sea.

Preventing another MH 370

To prevent future calamities like this on open water, the United Nations pushed a specific signal or transponder system that can be tracked from the ground or by a satellite. But Malaysian Airlines went ahead and made a deal to operate on a network of the latter that will enable them to monitor their planes anywhere they fly on Earth including over the polar ice caps.

The UN-urged method is already in use by most international flights that transmit signals that can be picked up by ground or satellite. It’s called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B). But Malaysia Air’s deal with Aireon LLC will enable the airline to use the company’s forthcoming satellite network which is due to be finished in 2018 to monitor its own air crafts.

It is not clear if this system would have helped MH 370 because the plane’s transmitter was shut off for unknown reasons, which would have made it invisible to satellites.